Ronnie O’Sullivan won a record seventh World Snooker Championship crown after beating Judd Trump 18-13 in the final.
With this title, O’Sullivan has equalled Stephen Hendry’s modern-day record of seven world titles.
The World Snooker Championship is professional snooker’s longest-running, most prestigious, and wealthiest tournament. First held in 1927, it is now one of the three tournaments (together with the UK Championship and the invitational Masters) that make up snooker’s Triple Crown Series.
The format of the World Championship has remained largely unchanged since 1982. It has a knock-out format with 32 players, contested over 17 days ending on the first Monday in May, which is a public holiday in the United Kingdom. Of the 32 players, 16 reach the final stages automatically while the other 16 need to earn a place through a qualifying competition.
The reigning world champion receives a direct entry and is the number one seed (the World Champion is usually seeded at least 2nd for all ranking tournaments, and The Masters, for the following season). The remaining direct entries are based on the latest world rankings, players being seeded based on these world rankings. Since the defending champion is normally ranked in the top 16, the top 16 ranked players generally receive a direct entry.